Why we should care about evolution and natural history

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Historians play it safe. Complex issues are dissected while analytical distance keeps stakeholders at bay. But the relevance of historical research may be lost in caution and failure to engage with a wider audience. We can't afford that. We have too much to offer and too much at stake. We need to take the discussion of science and religion beyond our own professional circles. Peter Harrison's The Territories of Science and Religion gives us an opportunity to do so. We can use his book to understand why people consistently get the relation wrong. However, we need to take the next step ourselves, involve historians in the common academic goal, across disciplines, to make sense of the world around us and make that combined knowledge truly useful. Evolution and natural history might help to that effect.

Original languageEnglish
JournalZygon
Volume51
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)684-697
Number of pages14
ISSN0591-2385
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

    Research areas

  • anthropology, biology, creationism, evolution, history, human origins, interdisciplinarity, natural history, religion, science

ID: 164788504